COVID patients can get multiple variants at once

It’s possible to get infected with multiple COVID-19 variants at the same time, according to two new studies.

Researchers for the studies — one published in January, the other in February — say their evidence suggests, multiple less-dominant variants may be present in the same infected individual simultaneously.

But how worried should COVID patients be about this possibility?

Being infected with multiple variants could make it more difficult for patients to get rid of COVID-19 from their systems entirely, according to Kapil Gupta, lead author of the January study.

"Obviously, it's a challenge for the immune system to fight off two infections at the same time," one public health expert told Global News.

"But I would say, by and large, any recombination between two different variants coming together would probably more likely develop a less lethal or less functional virus."

Global News reporter Sean Boynton has more on the research here.

Provinces lift COVID measures

A number of provinces loosened COVID-19 public health measures this week as declining case counts, hospitalizations and deaths plateaued across the country.

Ontario suspended its mandatory vaccine passport system and capacity limits Tuesday. Meanwhile, Alberta and Manitoba ended several measures the same day.

Other provinces, including Quebec and Atlantic Canada, eased restrictions a day earlier, with Saskatchewan ending them entirely on Monday.

Officials have pointed to falling hospitalizations and deaths to justify the changes. While those numbers across Canada have been cut in half from their peaks in January, not all provinces are currently seeing hospitalizations or case counts decline.

“While some jurisdictions are currently reporting increased case counts, ongoing easing of public health measures could lead to increased transmission in more areas over the coming weeks,” Canada’s top doctor Theresa Tam warned Friday.

She said overall, weekly case counts in Canada were down 4.5 per cent compared to last week, while the average daily numbers of people who have COVID-19 in hospitals and in ICUs have declined by over 15 per cent.

Q: “If vaccines aren't as effective at preventing transmission with Omicron, and it seems inevitable we'll all eventually get infected, is now an ideal time to try to ‘catch’ COVID while there's less burden on the health-care system?”

“I wouldn’t go out of my way to catch COVID, particularly if you’re not vaccinated,” said Stephen Hoption Cann, a clinical professor in the school of population and public health at the University of British Columbia.

“I don’t see any advantage to that.”

He added that many people did catch COVID-19 during the latest Omicron-driven wave as the variant was highly infectious.

“That Omicron variant is now having a harder time spreading because a lot of people have had it or are effectively vaccinated against it,” Hoption Cann said.

“So we’re at a decline and that will probably continue to go down until something new arises.”

He added that while we know which groups of people are at higher risk, there are still some cases where a younger person contracts the disease, becomes severely infected and dies.

Contact nicole.gibillini@globalnews.ca